Anna McNulty Taylor

Anna McNulty Taylor, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) is an award-winning and experienced K-12 educator, instructional coach, and supporting school leader. She came into teaching through Teach For America, and ultimately spent 13 years working as an educator in St. Louis, Missouri, focused on working in under resourced schools on the city's north side as a teacher of English Language Arts and reading. During her time in St. Louis, she taught high school ELA, worked as a middle school reading specialist, coached beginning K-12 teachers across dozens of school sites, and spent the remaining four years working as an instructional coach and supporting school leader in an PreK3-5th grade elementary school. In 2019, she began doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, advised by Lori Helman and David O'Brien. Her dissertation study focused on educators' instructional decision-making in middle school English Language Arts classrooms, especially amid current pushes and pulls to transform ELA teaching. Anna is originally from Rapid City, South Dakota. She earned a B.A. in Philosophy with a concentration in Russian, Central, and Eastern European Studies from Grinnell College, an M. Ed. and a K-12 Reading Specialist credential from the University of Missouri - St. Louis, and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. She lives in south Minneapolis with her spouse, Ben, and kids Ian and Zoey. Anna is an active supporter of Minneapolis Public Schools.

What students can expect from me?

As an instructor, students can expect for me to focus on building a classroom community that is rooted in respectful and joyful learning. I build relationships with all students in my classes, and take pride in building connections that endure in the years after our formal work together has ended. As a career educator, I know that it is my responsibility to “create the weather” in my classroom; I plan intentionally for and work to collaboratively build passionate, urgent, and joyful learning communities in every course, every day. I truly love teaching, and I’m so honored to be able to work with such exceptional students at the University of Minnesota.

I am dedicated to helping learners succeed on outcomes that matter for their futures - especially for their careers as K-12 educators. This means that I am constantly setting and reevaluating big picture goals, analyzing our progress toward those aspirations, and that I use student responses as formative assessments to create the activities, conversations, and experiences that will help us grow. I’m flexible and adaptive; I am always happy to work with students to find a new pathway or an innovative solution because I recognize that there are many paths that lead to the same destination. I recognize that learning shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all experience, and I work to differentiate within my courses to meet learner needs and reach our goals.

Finally, I am a passionate advocate for using education to build more just and equitable communities. I draw on my depth of experience working in under resourced schools in St. Louis, Missouri daily in my teaching. I frequently share about my experiences as a teacher, my own identity development, my successes, and my missteps as a white, cisgender woman who has worked across lines of racial, socioeconomic, and linguistic difference throughout my career. I want to help pre- and in-service educators to see the brilliance and assets of all students, especially those who are far too often marginalized in K-12 educational systems in the US. I work relentlessly to help educators build the knowledge, skills, mindsets, and dispositions that will help them provide an excellent, affirming, and joyful education to every student, every day.